Category Archives: nature

A little nature

Farming, nature, photography, wildlife

Bob and I haven’t been able to take our 2-wheel drive cart all the way down to the woods yet this year. Too much rain has made part of our farm lane a quagmire. In earlier years, we didn’t let that stop us. If mud got the best of us we got out and pushed, be damned the yuck. Now with Bob’s health issues, we don’t want to risk it. Getting stuck might mean a long walk home.

Usually, I take nature photos. The best I could do today was a snap of six ducks in a ‘lake’ in the middle of one of our crop fields–too much rain this year isn’t good for any farm. (No, the water shouldn’t be there.)

Look hard and you will see the ducks above this caption.

Most of the local birds, like sandhill cranes, are nesting now so they haven’t come out to greet us yet, but we hear them so we have hopes to see our crane family soon.

This photo of ducks was taken a few years back in late September. The crop around the waterhole is soybeans.

These ducks were a little easier to spot.

We’ll have to start bringing our binoculars out when we take our cart rides if the wildlife stays at a distance. Hopefully, the weather will change and dry up the land–for a while–so all farmers can get out on their fields, even retired ones.

Out for a ride

Family, nature, pets

Our farm lane still has issues with water, even so, Bob and I took Sunny for a ride in our cart.

Though Sunny thought he would drive, Bob eventually switched places with him.

Bob and Sunny did make room for me to ride, too.

Sometimes Sunny tries to take up more seat than he needs. We don’t like to leave him home. If he sees or even hears the cart running, he wants to join us and he is sad if we leave him behind–yes, dogs do get sad and don’t like to be left at home, even for fifteen minutes.

So we three took a ride this Monday evening. The sun was shining and the birds were twittering, but no deer were seen. Still, we were all glad for the nice farm outing.

Don’t ever regret enjoying a beautiful day. You never know when another will come along.

A special nature walk

nature, writing

Today’s weather started with a chilly rain. When it stopped after lunch I decided it was a good time to take our dog Sunny for a walk.

Sunny loves our walks. He would love to run free, but I keep him close to me on his leash.

Our walk this Thursday went a little slow. The pace wasn’t because of Sunny wanting to sniff every blade of grass. This time it was my fault.

Every few feet I stopped to rescue a worm.

Worm heading into the barren wasteland of a country road.

When I was a kid, Dad would take us outside after a rain to gather worms for fishing. Since I wasn’t going fishing, I became a worm rescuer.

As we walked, I stopped, picked up a worm that was heading across the road. Some had already perished as the blacktop dried, but the ones who were still wriggling on the gravel shoulder could be saved.

A handful of worms

I saved about 30, sending them on to higher ground, away from the road.

My good deed for the day.

A couple of years ago, when I was also rescuing worms, I had the idea for my picture book, Up and Down Twins. One of the twins always looked down like I do when searching for worms. The other twin always looked up. Isn’t it odd where stories have their origins?

Finally TULIPS!

nature

I’ve been waiting for color in my garden, but this year it seems to have taken forever.

Plants are slow to bloom in the country. Many of my city friends have had tulips and other blooms for weeks–this is usual. Things are warmer when houses are closer together. But it seems that even their flowers were slower to appear this year. Our winter was just wicked and hung on too long.

Two little maids

These early beauties are on the south side of our house. They are kissed by the sun first. In other parts of the yard, it will take a little longer to show their colors.

I’m happy with these first blooms. Yellow is my favorite color, well, it is until more flowers show off their blooms. Everyone is special as it decorates the land and brightens our days.

See them run

nature, wildlife

Out in the country, there are many beautiful sights in spring. Trees starting to bud, flowers blooming–at least my tulips are getting close to blooming.

Another beautiful sight is seeing deer running across fields again. This photo shows deer kicking up their heels as they cross Sunnybook Farm.

See them run

Bob and I love watching wildlife on our farm. When we were housebound, our only view was from our windows. Deer usually don’t come close to our house. These two are far in the back 40. They are only seen from the seat of our cart, or tractor.

With binoculars, we saw some at a distance from our house. Nice to know at least some whitetail have survived our harsh winter. We now look forward to seeing new fawns as our weather warms.